The Power of the Creation Message

by
Bob and Cecilia Brown

In a world totally removed from ours, the Saluan
people live in the remote jungle mountains of Sulawesi, Indonesia.
They have survived centuries of worldwide change without being
changed themselves. They were there centuries ago when Islam
was proclaimed from village to village and mosques appeared
throughout the land. Then they witnessed the years of Dutch
colonialism and saw church buildings spring up in many coastal
towns. The Saluan people resisted these strange new teachings
which excluded the worship of their ancestors. They retreated
into the mountains determined never to let go of the ways
of their parents and grandparents.

After a few years of Japanese occupation and
the departure of the Dutch, the Indonesians formed their own
government and self-rule began. One of the goals of that government
has been to civilize the tribal groups that remain. Again,
the Saluan people resisted all the programs the government
initiated.

In 1980 we were asked to consider bringing
the Bible message to the Saluan people. It was clear to us
that God wanted these hidden people to hear His message and
we moved near to the area in the hope that we would gain their
trust and eventually live with them in one of their villages.
But the Saluan people did not want us either. We visited their
villages, tried to learn their language, had them in our home
and helped them with medicine. After three years the people
still resisted.

Finally, very reluctantly, we told the people
that we were moving away. "We're going to another tribe
where the people do want us." We told them: "If
you don't want us to live with you in your village, we must
go somewhere else where we can be of more help." It was
then that the village of Simpang agreed to let us live with
them. We moved into a little bamboo house and began to work
toward our goal of teaching them about Jesus.

How could we teach these strong, independent,
and wilful people? How could we teach these people whose social
control was so effective that there had not been one theft,
divorce, wife-beating or adultery episode in the village as
long as we had known them? They were proud of their superiority
over the corrupt and scandalous lives of the "civilized,"
religious, coastal people. And yet their lives were not as
idyllic as they appeared. Feuding and fear permeated their
lives — feuding among the clans and fear of unexpected
repercussions for the slightest offense against the unpredictable
spirits.

As we learned their language and studied their
culture we often wondered, "What name should we use for
God?" We prayed that God would show us. My husband, Bob,
had recorded several legends on tape and after gaining fluency,
began to write down the stories he had recorded. They were
ancient stories, handed down from the obscure past from generation
to generation. The story of "The Snake and the Man"
yielded an astounding answer to our prayer.

"The One-Who-Formed-Our-Fingers had made
a beautiful place. When he made the man and the woman he told
them that they could live in that beautiful place. So, they
lived there, and their fire never went out, and their water
flasks never went dry. The One-Who-Formed-Our-Fingers said
that he was going away and that they must not eat the fruit
of one tree while he was gone. Then he left. While he was
gone, the snake came. Now, the man and the snake were brothers.
The snake told the man that the fruit was so good and that
he should try some. The man did eat the fruit. Then he was
afraid of The One-Who-Formed-Our-Fingers. When The One-Who-Formed-Our-Fingers
returned, he knew right away what had happened. He chased
the man away from the beautiful place and said, "From
now on the water won't come by itself, and the firewood won't
come by itself, and the food won't come by itself. The sweat
will drip off your jaw and your fingernails won't get long
because you will have to work to get food."

The people knew nothing else about The One-Who-Formed-Our-Fingers
except that when he wanted somebody to die, there was no amount
of ritual that could stop that death. He was above all and
very far away. This story, along with another account telling
of a flood that covered the mountains, provided a starting
point for evangelism.

We told the people of Simpang that The One-Who-Formed-Our-Fingers
did have a message for them and that was what we had come
to bring them. Before saying anything about the Bible, however,
we asked a lot of questions to get them thinking.

They assumed that God is unknowable —
that He exists, is clearly seen, but who has ever seen God?
Who has ever heard Him speak? Where can we find Him? Most
importantly, What was His purpose? The people had no answers
for this. We talked about God. Is He strong? Is He smart?
Does He see us? We talked about life and death. Why is life
so hard? How can anyone know what happens when we die? How
do you know that your way is right? The people had never probed
the depths of these questions before. But the desire to know
was born in their hearts.

At this point we introduced the Bible. The
Creator has made Himself known. He has spoken to a select
few and those people wrote down the things that God the Creator
had done in their lives and what He had said to them. It is
a record of real people and true experiences. The Bible is
a chronological, historical account, and to teach it we began
at the beginning.

First we told them that in the beginning God
made light. "What do you think?" we asked them,
"Was God afraid of the dark? Why did He make the light?"
We talked about all the things that God made and kept asking,
"Why did God make that? Did God need water for Himself?
Did He need the earth to stand upon? Was He hungry? Did He
need food? Did He need animals?" No, it was obvious to
the people of Simpang that God is not like people. We told
them that all these things were made by God for people to
use and enjoy. God is a God of great power, and He loves the
people that He made. He wanted their lives to be very good.
It was thrilling to see the people learn the truth about how
the world came into being.

As we taught the story of the Garden of Eden,
we emphasized that the garden was a place not only of physical
bliss, it was a place of perfect relationships. There was
no conflict, no competition, no deceit, no pride or unkindness.
Adam and Eve lived in perfect harmony. They walked and talked
with God. Their relationship with Him was one of total adoration
and submission.

Before telling the story of the temptation
and fall of Adam, we taught the people about the angels that
God had made, and how Lucifer lifted himself up against God
and was banished from God's dwelling place.

When the snake came to the garden, it was really
Lucifer wanting to ruin what God had made. When Adam and Eve
listened to him and ate the fruit, their relationship with
God was severed. They were terrified and hid, but God searched
them out and provided a way for their sins to be covered.
He gave them hope by telling them that one of their children
would destroy the snake who had tempted them. But they would
have to live with the consequences of their sin. God did not
walk and talk with them any more as He had in the garden.
Life would now be filled with weeds, thorns, sweat, pain,
and strife.

We showed how God is a God of love and truth
together. God could not condone their sin. He could not say,
"Oh forget it," or, "You couldn't help it.
We'll pretend it never happened," or, "It was just
ONE little sin." No, the damage was done. Adam and Eve
were guilty. One sin brought judgment. One sin brought fear
and shame. One sin brought more sin. We taught here that Adam
and Eve's own covering of leaves was totally inadequate. It
took God's provision and the shedding of blood before their
guilt was covered.

It took several weeks to teach just the first
three chapters of Genesis. These stories struck a chord in
the people's hearts. It was all so true. They were separated
from God. Their life was so hard and it was all Adam's fault!
If only Adam hadn't done what he did. The people blamed Adam.
They were confident that if they had been there, things would
have turned out differently. They would not have done what
Adam did!

We continued through the accounts of Cain and
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We stressed
God's holiness and judgment of sin. We told about the increasing
wickedness of the world and contrasted the few who believed
God. The people of Simpang agreed. "Oh yes!" they
said, "Those people [of Noah's day] were so wicked! They
deserved what they got!" They claimed that they would
not have done what Cain did. They would have been like Abel
or Noah or Abraham. They did not recognize their own sinfulness
before God.

After teaching Genesis we started on the book
of Exodus. They loved the story of Moses and the deliverance
out of Egypt and how God finally wiped out the Egyptian army.
They scorned the Israelites when they complained for lack
of water. Then we began to teach God's law.

This is where the ax fell. God's first law
brought the realization of condemnation. God said, "You
are not to be devoted to anything but me." One by one,
and very quietly, the light began to dawn in the hearts of
that first village of Saluan people. They had been devoted
to their ancestor spirits, to be sure, but that was not all.
They had been devoted entirely to themselves. They wanted
wealth, good health, and ease. They often dared to deceive
even the spirits to get what they wanted. We spent a lot of
time on the law. We stressed how our heart attitude is just
as important as the actions that we do. "For example,"
we asked, "What if I go through the village at night,
thinking the village is empty, in order to steal one of Uncle's
chickens. I am almost to Uncle's house and I hear someone
cough. I do not get the chicken. But, according to God, I
am still guilty." These things are equally true with
murder and adultery. Have we not all committed these things
in our hearts? We have all disobeyed our parents. We have
all lied. We all covet the things that other people have.
"The whole world stands hushed and guilty before Almighty
God" (Romans 3:19).

From this point on we gave the people an overview
of the history of the Jewish nation in the Old Testament.
We explained God's provision of the sacrificial lamb. We showed
them the places where God kept reminding the Jews that someone
was coming who would deliver His people. We taught them some
of the very specific prophecies that would be fulfilled by
the Deliverer.

Finally, after months of teaching, we taught
them about Jesus. We showed the ways in which the prophecies
of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Him. The miracles that
He performed revealed His power over nature, sickness, evil
spirits, and even death. His tender compassion for humble
people stood in sharp contrast to His anger toward the proud
and self righteous. His execution was incomprehensible until
He arose from the grave, having paid the price for all of
our sin. He was God, come in the flesh, to reconcile the relationships
that were severed in the Garden. He was the Lamb whose blood
was shed in our place. Because He conquered death, He offers
life to all who believe in Him.

The people of Simpang heard the message of
the Bible in a comprehensive chronological way. It took months
of teaching before they would even admit that they were far
from God. Teaching the Bible from the beginning was the only
way to build a sure foundation for their faith. They needed
to know about God's love and power, shown in creation and
His holy standards, shown in the law. Only then did they understand
their need. They received God's gift of salvation with great
joy. In the four years since then, their light has shone brightly
and they are an example to the neighboring villages as well
as the coastal peoples. What religions, armies, governments,
and economics could not do, God's Word did. Hearing God's
Word, from the beginning and in their own language, changed
their lives. They will never be the same.

* Mr. & Mrs. Brown are missionaries in
Indonesia with New Tribes Missions.